Israeli police investigating Palestinian woman's death in car

This content was published on October 13, 2018 11:25 AMOct 13, 2018 - 11:25

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli police said on Saturday they were investigating the death of a Palestinian woman in the occupied West Bank, after her husband said he suspected Israeli settlers had pelted their car with rocks.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident but footage of the car, which a Reuters cameraman said bore Palestinian licence plates, showed what appeared to be a blood-stained broken brick at the foot of the passenger seat, which was covered in shattered glass and blood stains.

A source at the Nablus hospital where Aisha al-Rawbi was brought said the 47-year-old was dead on arrival and that she had suffered a head injury. Her relatives said an autopsy was to be carried out at another hospital.

The woman's husband, Aykube al-Rawbi, 52, said he was driving by a settlement late on Friday after dark along a main road near the Palestinian city of Nablus and that he could not clearly see who pelted the car.

"The stones came from the side where the settlement is. I could hear the people speak Hebrew, but I didn't see them," said al-Rawbi.

Israeli Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "Police arrived in the area and have opened an investigation into the circumstances behind the incident reported."

There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

On Friday, Gaza health officials said Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in protests along Gaza's border. Israel said its troops had shot a group who broke through the fence with a bomb and attacked an army post.

On Sunday, a Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israelis and wounded a third in an industrial park next to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, and on Thursday the Israeli military said a Palestinian had stabbed an Israeli soldier in the area.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014 and a bid by U.S. President Donald Trump to restart them has shown little progress so far.

The Palestinians want to establish an independent state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem -- territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

Settlements Israel has built in the West Bank, where Palestinians have limited self-rule, are deemed illegal by most countries. Israel disputes this.